Is Luta making a comeback?

Ten years ago, soca artiste Rondy “Luta” McIntosh announced his retirement from all competition during the carnival season.{{more}}

However, the “Thief a Whine” artiste has indicated that Vincy Mas 2013 may be the year he exits retirement mode.

“This year, 2013, I am closer to competing than not competing… Yes, I said it; I am closer to jumping back into competition than staying away from competition,” McIntosh said in an interview with SEARCHLIGHT on Monday.

For 2013, McIntosh has so far released four songs that are in rotation on the airwaves, with two more songs scheduled to be released later this month.

The four songs released thus far are “Legal Whine”, “Thief ah Whine”, “Wuk Yo Wuking” and the popular “Rum Jumbie”.

This year marks McIntosh’s 18th year as a soca artiste.

McIntosh, a member of the band Signal in the late 90s, now does solo projects and is a part of the LIME Soca Dans group, of which he is a founding member.

Asked how he has managed to maintain his relevance as an artiste after so many years, McIntosh explained that every artiste needs to know their strength and niche market.

“I’ll tell you something; you might go to a show and you may not see the younger fans that are getting into the parties, you may not see them jumping up and rolling in mud for Luta, right?

“But, the people who have been there from since I entered the industry and know Luta, they will go out to just have a good time. When it comes to Luta, they will be whining and that is what they love.

“That’s why when a promoter is putting on a show and he says let me get this artiste or this other artiste because they will have [them] running up and down all over the place and thing, they must throw in a Luta, because they have to cater for the people who just come out to have a good time,” he added.

In relation to Vincy Mas 2013, the self-proclaimed “crowd motivator” says he is impressed with the music he has heard from other artistes thus far, describing the songs as mind-boggling.

“From the different artistes and various rhythms I’ve been hearing, they sound real good. The ragga soca songs are very good and there are some very good up tempo songs as well…”

Apart from entertaining patrons locally, regionally and internationally, McIntosh is a full-time employee of telecommunications provider LIME.

According to McIntosh, balancing his responsibilities as an Enterprise Account manager and an entertainer have been an easy task.

He is, however, of the opinion that he would have achieved more as an artiste, if that was his only focus.

“I don’t want to say I should have reached much further, but I could have if music was the only thing that I do, because I have a career apart from music. My job at LIME always has me working… So, I don’t really dedicate that much time to music.

“If I were doing music alone, I believe that the name Luta would have been reached much further, but I am satisfied because I was able to manage both careers over the years and I am doing well in both,” he stated.

McIntosh said his focus for Vincy Mas 2013 is to improve on last year’s stage performance.

“I want to do something different. Not the Luta they saw last year or the Soca Dans from last year. If persons went to Soca Swing, what they saw was way better than what they saw last year and that is the trend; that is what it’s going to be like for the rest of the carnival,” McIntosh further stated.

For Vincy Mas 2013, McIntosh encourages patrons and revellers to “play it safe,” ensuring a violence free carnival. (AA)